Deputy Economy Minister: “positive” labour market trends expected to continue, 2024 year of “new record indicators”

Georgian Deputy Economy Minister Vakhtang Tsintsadze on Monday said “positive trends” in the domestic labour market were expected to continue in the coming quarters and make 2024 a year of “new record indicators”. 

He said the trend of decreasing unemployment and increasing employment had persisted during the first quarter, leading to a “historic low” in the unemployment rate. 

The National Statistics Office said the unemployment rate had decreased in the first quarter by 4.0 percentage points year-on-year, reaching 14 percent. The number of employed individuals increased by 130,000, reaching a ”record high” of 1.402 million, while the number of the unemployed decreased by 50,600, to a “minimum” of 228,600.

Tsintsadze attributed the “positive impact” on the labour market to a “high rate” of economic growth in the country. 

Over the last three years, Georgia’s average economic growth was 9.7 percent, and in the first quarter, it stood at 7.8 percent. This resulted in significant positive trends in the labour market, with increases in both employee and self-employed groups”, he said.

The Deputy Minister said the Government was taking “active steps”, with a focus on maintaining high economic growth to sustain “positive trends” not only in the labour market but across “all sectors of the economy”.